***Official 2023 Minnesota Twins season thread***

[troesports]

Once again, terrible ABs with the bases loaded and nobody out. And then freaking Emilio Pagan. Argh!

[atk825]

Originally Posted by troesports

Once again, terrible ABs with the bases loaded and nobody out. And then freaking Emilio Pagan. Argh!

As a Dodger fan, that was a pretty big yikes. Definitely a series the Twins probably should have swept.

[atk825]

Originally Posted by troesports

Once again, terrible ABs with the bases loaded and nobody out. And then freaking Emilio Pagan. Argh!

https://twitter.com/atf13atf/status/1658959942475300865

[EBCollectibles]

Jax is the man!!

[Eckstein197]

Royce Lewis is incredible. 1 year almost to the day of him tearing his ACL he comes back with 4 RBIs including a 3 run HR and the game tying RBI with 2 outs in the 9th. The absolute spark plug this offense needed. A loss today would have been a disaster but what a win

[spuds1961]

Wrong thread for me, nice win today though.

[EBCollectibles]

Originally Posted by Eckstein197

Royce Lewis is incredible. 1 year almost to the day of him tearing his ACL he comes back with 4 RBIs including a 3 run HR and the game tying RBI with 2 outs in the 9th. The absolute spark plug this offense needed. A loss today would have been a disaster but what a win

They needed a jolt from that dumpster fire they call an offense. Correa is laughable.

[Eckstein197]

A series win and a season series win over the Astros is a step in the right direction!

What a great game yesterday, Varland is a dawg man. Big fan and I’m really excited for this rotation. Maeda is almost back which probably means Varland is heading back to St Paul
But honestly if Maeda struggles in his return, I’m almost to the point where I’d rather have Varland in there and Maeda becomes a multi inning reliever. Just unsure if Maeda’s arm will ever be healthy again and Varland’s ceiling is high with his revamped stuff

Big 4 game series with the guardians coming up. Need to go 3-1 here, put some distance between us and them in the division here in early June

[Hollywood42]

I don't know how we could justify sending Varland or Ober back down, they have both looked great. And I hate to say it but I kinda think Maeda is toast

Glad to get a series win against a great team to close out a pretty bad month. Good opportunity to get things going in the right direction with a convincing series win against a rival

Originally Posted by Eckstein197

A series win and a season series win over the Astros is a step in the right direction!

What a great game yesterday, Varland is a dawg man. Big fan and I’m really excited for this rotation. Maeda is almost back which probably means Varland is heading back to St Paul
But honestly if Maeda struggles in his return, I’m almost to the point where I’d rather have Varland in there and Maeda becomes a multi inning reliever. Just unsure if Maeda’s arm will ever be healthy again and Varland’s ceiling is high with his revamped stuff

Big 4 game series with the guardians coming up. Need to go 3-1 here, put some distance between us and them in the division here in early June

[Eckstein197]

That win felt good. So dang good

[Hollywood42]

Was looking like a disaster but Royce and the bottom of the lineup came through. Massive win

[Athey49]

What a clutch performance by Royce, and Castro has been quite the surprise as well

[Chris Lyle]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

Was looking like a disaster but Royce and the bottom of the lineup came through. Massive win

Huge win for you guys last night and a gut punch for my Guards. I thought we were ok when Karinchak finally had a clean inning but then Stephan showed he was human... And then Morgan

[Eckstein197]

Originally Posted by Chris Lyle

Huge win for you guys last night and a gut punch for my Guards. I thought we were ok when Karinchak finally had a clean inning but then Stephan showed he was human... And then Morgan

It was a script flip from last year. 2022 guardians win that game and 2022 twins absolutely lose that game

[Eckstein197]

Awesome 1-0 win last night. Rocco managed the bullpen quite well. Win one more and take the series.

[EBCollectibles]

Their offense is laughable. Wasting great pitching.

[Badgers0821]

Originally Posted by EBCollectibles

Their offense is laughable. Wasting great pitching.

This is the entire AL Central, every teams offense is not very good.

[Hollywood42]

Off day thoughts -

We really just need to take the time now to give Bux and Correa an extended break (whether that's IL stints or just a few games off in a row) for a reset. I still firmly believe both of them are way too good of ballplayers to be this bad (and that's also hyperbole for Buck who still has a good wRC+ and OPS+, he's just been super on or off) and I do think they'll turn it around. But it doesn't feel like it's productive anymore to keep throwing them out there and waiting for it to happen. We need these 2 to lead the charge, so we have to try something new to help spark that

Next step, time to give AK and Royce every opportunity to carry this team. They've both been electric this year and are few bright spots on this offense. I don't want to see any more of them being lifted for R/L late inning pinch hitters. Other guys, sure, but these 2 should be off limits. Of course this is terrible timing as Royce was just in yet another stupid freak collision - hope he is ok

Beyond that it's simply time for others to step up or step out. I will give Polo a pass here as he's been solid when healthy and has just missed some time this year. Gallo honestly I'm fine with, he's on pace for 30 HR, and yes he hits for no average and strikes out a lot, but that's the tradeoff. We just can't have that in a lineup where nobody else is producing either. I actually really like Solano and Farmer as bench matchup guys, but they're having to play regularly a lot more than we can have. Beyond that, I'm still out on Kep as I have been for a long time. And after that we get to Vazquez and MAT who I both love defensively, but they are anchors offensively (MAT more so than CV), and that's obviously a problem when the offense overall is struggling so much. I don't think Jeffers is going to keep hitting as well as he has, but at this point he needs to start over CV - again, no other choice when the offense as a whole is so bad. Willi Castro's hot streak is unfortunate timing too, as he overall really shouldn't be anything more than the last bench bat on the roster, let alone playing every day, but that's kind of the situation we're in, and hard to turn away from that right now when he's hitting and just about no one else is

In terms of actual fixes, the obvious one has to start with getting Wallner up here. I think the hype for him in Twins fan circles as gotten a little out of hand and unrealistic, but he has nothing left to prove in the minors and we need him in the majors. Garlick's gotta be the one to go for the corresponding move. He's just not an impact bat and we need more than platoon guys

After that, we might be stuck looking at trades. The minors are a little barren at the moment - I don't think Julien has much of anything left to do in the minors, but he's not looked the part in the majors yet and unfortunately with this bad of an offense I don't think we can afford to wait him out in the majors right now. Martin has been hurt so he's not an option yet. Miranda still has some work to do before he's ready for another shot. Honestly maybe it's Brooks Lee season? That'd be aggressive and it hasn't necessarily earned it all quite yet - his numbers in AA this year are solid, not amazing, and I don't know how his defense has looked. But again, he might be the only remaining guy in the minors outside of Wallner who we could hope to have an impact

And beyond that we're looking at trades. We would really benefit from adding a quality outfielder. Yeah when we're fully healthy with Bux, Wallner, AK, and Larnach all in action, it gets crowded (also considering Gallo, Kep, and MAT will be around). But again, we're in the spot where we drastically need some offense, so if that means Larnach sits in the minors for another year, so be it. We need some production now

[Eckstein197]

I agree with Correa and Buxton probably needing a bit of time off but man with a big 6 game road trip coming up I feel like we need them in the lineup

I’m tired of Kepler and just ready for him to be off this team. Bring up Larnach or Wallner. Larnach and Wallner are like 25/26, they need reps to see if they can actually contribute to this team as youngsters or not. There’s no point in continuing to trot out Kepler. I get it Kepler is a good defender but he’s worn out his welcome here and it seems like the entire fan base is pretty much ready for him to go

Im so glad Royce is okay after that really scary collision yesterday. Obviously losing him team wise would be bad but man more so it would freaking suck for him to get hurt with a ridiculous play like that after his ACL surgeries. Glad to hear he’s just bumped/bruised and should be fine going forward

I do agree this team probably needs to look to the trade marker for a bat, obviously trades this early don’t really happen but definitely once the trade deadline comes they need a bat. Preferably a power right handed corner OF bat so we don’t have to keep trotting out Garlick versus lefties because it’s a waste of a roster spot when you’ve got a guy who can mash lefties but is awful versus righties when you’ve got an offense that’s just dead.

If anything the offensive approach needs to be adjusted. We have good players but the offensive approach has just been bad. You’ve gotta assume Popkins seat is currently an inferno

A big missed opportunity to put some distance between us and the rest of the division with dropping the last 2 to Cleveland. Needed to go 3-1 there.
Big 6 game road stretch with the rays and blue jays. Just gotta hope to go 3-3, tread water. Rotation is good enough to do that we just need some offense to show up

Looking at the rest of the division this week, Tigers are in Philly then home Arizona, Cleveland has home Boston and then home Houston, White Sox are at Yankees and then home Miami. And then the royals are dead for the division

So looks to be a similar tough week for pretty much everyone in the division, twins hardest schedule but no one looks to have a real tough stretch.

Once this week is over we have a stretch where we have 7 games versus the tigers in a 2 week stretch that will be pretty crucial

[CollectKep26]

Another sad display all around last night, blowing a very nice start from Lopez.

Rocco seems content treating AK like a platoon player, which still boggles my mind.

And that 9th inning. Great mixed with terrible. MAT stealing 3rd while Kepler is asleep at 1st. Kepler not trying to make it 1st to 3rd when Royce comes up big. Jeffers seemingly not hustling trying to keep himself out of a double play. It's almost like half this squad doesn't care.

[troesports]

Max Kepler needs to go. Sorry, CollectKep26.

[hxcmilkshake]

Its fine guys you will only need 75 wins to claim the Norris division then get cooked in round 1 again.

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[eye4talent]

Originally Posted by CollectKep26

Rocco seems content treating AK like a platoon player, which still boggles my mind.

The only semi-decent reason I can think of for doing this is that they’re still being cautious with his wrist. How it would help preserve his wrist, I’m not sure, other than using it as a means to limit is workload.


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[skipfreely]

Swap Kepler for Wallner now!

[Hollywood42]

I've been ready to be done with Kep for a year or two now, but there's multiple players on the roster that should go down/be DFAed before him. Wallner should be up regardless though